Mobile telephones and other mobile communications devices (such as personal digital assistants) are carried by millions of consumers. There have been a number of attempts to integrate payment applications with these mobile devices. One approach, introduced by MasterCard International Incorporated, the assignee of the present application, is to securely install a payment application in mobile phones that are Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled, allowing the phones to be used as a payment device in contactless payment transactions. For example, these mobile phones may be configured to conduct payment transactions using a NFC payment protocol, such as the PayPass® payment protocol. In some cases, there may be a delay between a request from a consumer to activate a payment account in connection with a mobile device and the time at which an issuer can establish an actual account in response to that request. Such a delay may be frustrating to a consumer who want to use his or her mobile device to complete a purchase transaction.
It may therefore be desirable to allow consumers to activate such a payment application on a consumer's mobile phone and then instantly, that is to say within a relatively brief period of time, use the mobile phone in a payment transaction.